Saturday, September 1, 2012

Human Nature and the Left

I think much of the frustration of the Left comes from an inability to acknowledge that things like greed and superficiality are a part of human nature. One can't merely say humans are a blank slate with which to write a utopian vision on, for one thing that doesn't sound like a very pleasant society to live in.

2 comments:

Lorraine said...

Not all leftists are utopians. If we want to believe humans are blank slates, we believe their purpose is for those humans to write their own visions on them. Leftist≠Stalinist. I myself don't care one way or another whether superficiality is part of human nature. I'm not offended by superficiality. I'm open to the idea that greed is part of human nature, but not so much to the idea that greed is uniquely qualified to solve all practical problems. I believe most of us leftists spend many hours agonizing over the differences between what we believe to be true and what we believe to be right, and even between what we want to believe and what we actually believe. In times like these, perhaps we sometimes hesitate to talk about our self doubts in ideologically mixed company, but surely you can understand the motivations for this? The conservative community, at this point in history, absolutely pounces on any opportunity presented by equivocal or bipartisan gestures. And they don't give back. This too, I believe, will come to pass. And they call us the pessimists!

Lorraine said...

https://twitter.com/WorkingCIass/status/298481937604046848

And they do it with the help of many lackeys, and if there's any truth to the rumors, maybe a few paid sock puppets.